What a fuckin' joke...

Goodell lowers boom on the Saints


Posted by Mike Florio on March 21, 2012, 12:48 PM EDT
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As expected, Commissioner Roger Goodell has hit the Saints hard for the bounty system that was employed for three seasons.

Per a league source, head coach Sean Payton has been suspended for the full year.

But it could have been worse for Payton. Former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has been suspended indefinitely. (Presumably, that means at least a year.)

Also, G.M. Mickey Loomis has been suspended for eight games.

The discipline comes more than two weeks after the NFL concluded that the Saints maintained in 2009, 2010, and 2011 a system that paid defensive players for forced turnovers, big plays, and (most troublingly) hits that knocked opposing players out of the game.

Williams got the worst of it because the league concluded that he actually administered the program. As Peter King of Sports Illustrated explained in an excellent cover story for the magazine, Williams handed out envelopes full of cash at Saturday night defensive meetings following victories during the 2009 Super Bowl season.

Also, Williams lied to the NFL, likely on multiple occasions, about the bounty system. And he brazenly continued to do it for two full seasons after the league investigated a complaint from the Vikings that the Saints had a $10,000 bounty on Brett Favre during the 2009 NFC title game.

Payton, though not directly involved in the bounty program, was aware of it and didn’t stop it.

UPDATE 12:59 p.m. ET: The NFL has issued a formal announcement regarding the discipline. The announcement also states that assistant head coach/linebackers coach Joe Vitt has been suspended six games. The penalties imposed on the Saints organization will be discussed analyzed in a separate item.

Goodell was the type of kid growing up who was a little smaller...a little dumber...a little less interesting and a little less notable for really anything other than the preceding within his peer group. In school, he yearned to be acknowledged for something positive--and came to crave the feeling of power--however rarely he actually encountered that opportunity. All around him he saw bigger, smarter, better-looking kids skirt the rules--brazenly, in his eyes--and get away with a slap on the wrist...when he felt the full-force of the hammer drop whenever he tried to pull any shit. He became embittered at this perceived inequality and resolved to someday put himself in a position of power to correct this perceived injustice, stop the madness and make sure those pricks who ride the edge and made him suffer--get what's coming to them after all...

Sean Payton stunned by suspension: “I’m not OK”


Posted by Michael David Smith on March 21, 2012, 1:28 PM EDT
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Saints coach Sean Payton was shocked to find out today that he has been banished from the NFL for the entire 2012 season for his team’s bounty scandal.

Jay Glazer said on NFL Network that he interviewed Payton immediately after the news came down, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s punishment is far more severe than Payton was expecting.

“I did talk to him and he’s stunned to say the least,” Glazer said. “I think the entire team thought maybe there’d be a four-game suspension, but not a year. I said, ‘Are you OK?’ And he said, ‘No, I’m not OK.’ He is stunned. He’s going to lose about $8 million. He is beside himself here.”

Glazer reports that Payton’s plan for the four-game suspension he had braced himself for was to have assistant head coach/linebackers coach Joe Vitt take over as interim head coach while Payton served the suspension. But that plan is now out the window because Vitt has been suspended six games for his own role in the bounty scandal.

The Saints may now have either offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael or former Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo, who was slated to replace Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator, step in as the head coach.

I thought everybody already knew--never let a short man become King...

I'm not quite sure how I feel about all of this. You may be right, HD, that Goodell is acting out some form of a Napoleon complex. However, the Saints' program was a serious violation that threatened the integrity of the game. Goodell had to make a MAJOR statement.

I think it's safe to say there aren't going to be any more bounty systems around the league now, don't you?

What do you feel would have been an appropriate response?

Joe Horn blasts Roger Goodell over Saints’ punishment


Posted by Michael David Smith on March 22, 2012, 3:16 PM EDT
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When Joe Horn played for the Saints, he was fined $30,000 for using a phone as a prop during a touchdown celebration. That seemed like a harsh punishment, but it’s a slap on the wrist compared to the yearlong ban that Saints coach Sean Payton got yesterday for the team’s bounty scandal. And Horn says Payton’s punishment went way too far.

Horn said on SiriusXM NFL Radio that he thinks the punishment NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell levied against Payton and the Saints shows that there needs to be a check on Goodell’s power.

“All I’m saying is this right here, man: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],” Horn said of Goodell, via USA Today. “For him to come down and do that? And, you know, it’s the players’ fault, because they should ask for his damn job. He’s just not a fair commissioner.”

Horn referenced comments from Steelers linebacker [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], who called Goodell a “crook” and a “devil” and a “puppet” and a “dictator” in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

“He’s exactly what James Harrison said he was to me,” Horn said. “Everything James Harrison said he was, to me, today confirmed that with the commissioner as far as I’m concerned. And I know I’m retired and it really don’t matter to him but the players, the ones that are active, should ask for his damn job.”

Horn said Goodell busted Payton and the Saints for activities that are commonplace in the NFL.

“Quiet as it’s kept, we all had big hits and we all had money pots for big hits. It wasn’t a bounty, but we all had big hits and we got paid for knocking guys out of the game,” Horn said.

...and the Saints get to be the fall guy to pay the price because the league doesn't want to face the shit storm of lawsuits that would rain down on them from current/former players injured in games throughout the league wherein bounties were paid... Like I said--Goodell is a gutless little fuck for coming down on the Saints this way--particularly if the practice is as widespread as it would appear. He hammers the Saints like they are the only ones--then watch--will stick his fingers in his ears and go lalalalalalalala as reports surface of other teams doing the same fucking thing...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Posted by Josh Alper on March 22, 2012, 6:55 PM EDT
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Earlier on Thursday [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] from retired wide receiver Joe Horn about the penalties handed down to Saints coach Sean Payton and others by commissioner Roger Goodell.

As you’d imagine, he doesn’t speak for all past and present NFL players. Vikings punter [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] was on the Judd & Phunn show on ESPN Radio in Minneapolis on Thursday and he had [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on the matter. He thinks Goodell’s punishment of Payton was appropriate, that he didn’t come down hard enough on Gregg Williams and he hopes that [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], who allegedly offered $10,000 to anyone who knocked Kluwe’s teammate out of the NFC Championship Game, gets kicked out of the league for good.

“My position has always been that I think Vilma and Gregg Williams should be banned for life and then Payton should get a year, their GM should get a year and anyone who knowingly took money after a hit that injured someone should get a year as well,” Kluwe said.

Kluwe is no stranger to public statements about issues going on in the world of football. He slammed Goodell and the league for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and again [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. He also took issue with some of his fellow players for their behavior [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

Kluwe, who also took to Twitter with [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] about calling anyone who spoke to the NFL about the bounty program a snitch, also called on the NFLPA to make it clear that the Saints players who were part of the bounty program did something wrong.

Can you even imagine how many time a dickrod like this would have had the shit pounded out of him on the schoolyard growing up? Enough to possibly aspire to be a fucking punter in a sport defined by the brutality of its contact and toughness, perhaps? LOL

Go away, Kluwe... The last 5 of your 15 suggests you should have only gotten 10...

Well, you made excellent points, HD, and you've persuaded me that, while some kind of punishment stronger than Spygate was appropriate, Goodell went overboard in hammering Peyton for $8M. Probably the best justification for more leniency would be to leave some wiggle room in the likely event that similar programs existed elsewhere in the league. As you point out, if it surfaces that other teams were dirty too, Goodell is going to have a motherfucker of a PR dilemma on his hands. What's he going to do, cripple every franchise that had locker room discussions about taking players out?

Now, playing devil's advocate for a moment, this story would have taken an ugly turn for the worse had the Saint's bounty program resulted in a devastating or career ending injury for a high profile player. Let's say Aaron Rodgers went down in the opener with a career-ending concussion from a cheap shot by a Saints player who baked $10K for the hit. Very different situation then, eh?

Still, like you, i think we need to put all this in context. It's an incredibly violent and dangerous sport already and the incremental increase of risk of injury due to any kind of bounty program is probably negligible. These guys are already going at full speed... you can't go any faster.

There's no question what the Saints did was wrong, and some kind of punishment was clearly necessary... so all we can argue is the degree. And in this case, after reading your arguments and giving it some thought, I agree with you... for a number of reasons, Goodell went overboard.

However, I know it's more fun on the boards when there are disagreements, so I'll leave you with one.

I still like Chris Kluwe. Maybe we disagree with him on this one, but I like the fact that he speaks his mind and is a helluva clever writer. He won me over with some of his previous offerings (especially those mocking Goodell). I'm going to give him a mulligan on this one.

Packers quickly addressed “bounty” violations in 2007


Posted by Michael David Smith on March 23, 2012, 8:53 AM EDT
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The New Orleans Times-Picayune is one of several media outlets pointing out recently that the Saints aren’t the first team to get caught violating the NFL’s bounty rule: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

That violation largely flew under the radar at the time and hasn’t been mentioned often since then, although the NFL did make clear that a violation occurred. A 2007 NFL.com article, headlined, “[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],” noted that the league didn’t issue any fines, let alone suspensions.

The Packers’ violations included defensive linemen getting $500 from teammates for holding Vikings running back [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] under 100 yards in a 34-0 victory over Minnesota. That’s obviously a lot different than [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] offering $10,000 to any teammate who could knock Brett Favre out of the NFC Championship Game, and more importantly, as soon as the league spoke with the Packers about it, the Packers stopped it.

“We’ve already addressed it as a football team,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said at the time. “It’s a dead issue, in my view. There’s been no fines. It’s been resolved with the league, and we have moved on.”

If Saints head coach Sean Payton had addressed bounties with his football team and made sure they were a dead issue as soon as he learned what was going on, he’d still be the Saints’ head coach for the upcoming season.